


Persephone Parker: The Beginning

by MakingMyOwnReality



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: Female Peter Parker, Fluff, Gen, Greek Mythology - Freeform, Loki is a Good Bro, Loki wasn't the bad guy in Avengers, Multiple Mythologies, One small time skip, Teenager! Loki, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-07
Updated: 2019-07-19
Packaged: 2020-06-24 00:59:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19713100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MakingMyOwnReality/pseuds/MakingMyOwnReality
Summary: Persephone Parker, otherwise known as Spiderwoman, dreamed of writing her name among the stars as a little girl. Now, with the powers of an arachnid and a mentor in Tony Stark, she realises traversing the night sky isn't as easy as it looks and that the universe is a lot bigger than she could ever have imagined.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is actually my first fanfiction posted ever, so please be kind with your comments. Constructive Criticism is always appreciated, and with saying that..... Enjoy!

Tony was feeling exhausted. He had just come back from another solo mission on the other side of the country and had stopped by his favorite cheeseburger joint. The view on this particular rooftop was stunning, and though he would never admit to anyone else on the team, sometimes he enjoyed just watching the city he had protected in all her glory, unnoticed and disregarded as nothing more than a shadow amongst the stars. 

The sound of shouting reached him from below and he glanced down. A man seemed to be struggling against two muggers. Distantly he heard a steady cadence of thwip, thwip and turned. Tony could feel a smile growing on his face. For the past few weeks he’d been watching videos of Spiderwoman, the new female superhero in town who seemed determined to help citizens from smaller scale threats. For all that he is an internationally acclaimed superhero who had saved the world multiple times, Tony had always hated that despite all his efforts, everyday humans were attacked by each other in his own city. He was glad that someone was looking out for the ‘little guy’. 

Spiderwoman webbed herself straight towards the assailants, knocking the gun out of the heavier set man’s hands and landing on top of him. He was out like a light the instant his head hit the ground. She turned, ducked and punched the other man, webbing him to the wall with his unconscious companion. Spiderwoman dug a sticky note out of her pocket, scribbled something on it and stuck it to her webbing. She then turned to the other man and approached him like a wild animal about to bolt. Tony tensed at the look that flashed across the other man’s face before he dropped to the alley floor, clutching his leg. 

“Spiderwoman, thank god you’re here! I think he did something to my leg, I can’t walk. Can you help me?”

“Of course! Here, take my hand.” She helped him up. He pretended to stumble and caught her chest. She flinched but continued steadying him.

“Please let go of me.”

“No, you’re supposed to help people aren’t you? Women don’t get an opinion anyway, it’s your fault for wearing such a skin tight outfit.” Tony swore and dropped into the alley, raising his repulsor after noticing she seemed to have frozen.

His voice was hard and unforgiving. “I believe she told you to step away.”

The man paled upon seeing him there and fled. Spiderwoman looked at him through her goggles. “W-why would he do that? I helped him.”

Tony sighed, disgusted with the man and the entire situation. He couldn’t believe female superheroes were being treated with such disrespect. God, she sounded so young. 

“Come with me.” In a daze she followed him to his rooftop and sat beside him staring at her hands. “Listen, it wasn’t your fault. I was enjoying a late dinner when –“

Spiderwoman suddenly seemed to come to herself, realizing who she was sitting next to. “Oh my god. You’re Tony Stark! I was reading your latest Arc technology paper last night! Why did I just say that? I’m so sorry Mr. Stark, for interrupting your dinner plans and bothering you. I’ll just –“ He held up his hand to silence the rambling. 

“Jeez, chill. It’s ok. I’ve actually been wondering about you for the past couple of weeks. That web fluid, where did you get it? Do you work for some organization or something? The tensile strength in that thing is amazing, and the mechanism is honestly ingenious. I don’t give out compliments frequently either, so don’t tell anyone I said that either, Spiderwoman.” Tony was desperately trying to help her through her shock. No young woman should ever have to experience what she just had to.

“Umm…wow. Thank you so much. I, uh, actually made both myself, I know the web fluid isn’t the most efficient or anything and I’m sure the mechanism is nothing compared to what you could build, but it’s the best I could make in the school labs.” She was definitely embarrassed now, Tony could tell. But at least he had succeeded in distracting her. Wait, what had she just said?

“School labs?! You’re still in school. Are you saying you’re not only a super-powered teenager who created a web formula I couldn’t even figure out and a pretty awesome set of web shooters, but can also read and understand my papers?” Tony was shocked. This kid was amazing and he needed to know more.

Persephone could not believe she had just said that. All this work into keeping her identity safe, and she goes and reveals she’s still in school. She was officially done. Abruptly, her Spidey-sense started tingling, but the danger felt farther away as if it was only near her. Looking behind Mr. Stark, she saw a flash of metal from the alley below. With a shout, she jumped and tackled him. It was only thanks to her enhanced strength that she could shove him around.  
“What the-“ Tony’s eyes widened in shock. He had stepped out of the suit to talk to her, and one of the thugs’ friends had found his compatriots webbed up and decided to take his chances. Spiderwoman collapsed with a shout, blindly turning back and webbing the man before he could try again. He cursed and knelt down next to her.

“We have to get you to a hospital, that’s got to hurt like a b-, I mean bull.” She flinched away and began shaking her head.

“No, no, no. No hospitals p-please Mr. Stark. They can’t get the chance to see my DNA. I’ll just patch it up myself.”

“Hell no. If you’re not going to the hospital, you’re at least coming to the tower where an adult can supervise you. It’s my fault you got shot in the first place. I’ve got an AI who can perform medical scans as well as a ton of supplies.” Tony could still see some last vestiges of hesitance in her eyes. He guessed he could see where the reluctance was coming from. She was a teenage girl about to go to a stranger’s house. “Don’t worry. You’ll be completely safe. Have you got your phone on you? Good, just keep that within hand’s reach, it’ll make you feel safer. I’m all for the don’t go to a stranger’s house in the middle of night, but you’re kind of bleeding out here Spidergirl and you refuse to go to a hospital. You aren’t giving me a whole lot of options here.” Tony kept on applying pressure to her wound, but the bleeding was already slowing.

Her eyes widened. “Thank you, Mr. Stark! But you don’t need to trouble yourself, it’s not that I don’t trust you or anything! I mean, you are Iron Man! I just-“ He sighed and scooped her up gently. Now that Spiderwoman had given her consent, Tony figured he was free to rush her to the Tower. That bullet wound needed to be looked at.

“Friday, call the police on those brutes back there, would you? And see if you can find that pig from before. He’s going behind bars.”

Tony set her down in his spare bedroom. He could see her goggles were getting misty from the effort of restraining the tears that threatened to spill. God, he had gotten a teenage girl shot. “You’ll need to take off this hoodie and the mask. It’s going to get a little hard to breathe through that mask. Trust me, that cloth is just going to feel like it’s suffocation you under the pain. Do you have something on underneath? We’re going to have to cut the hoodie off you.”

“Uh… yeah. But, my secret identity…” Persephone bit her lip. Tony said nothing, grabbing a pair of scissors and cutting the hoodie in half. The bleeding was slow now, and Seph breathed a small sigh of relief when she realized it had gone straight through. Grabbing some antiseptic liquid he quickly splashed it over the wound, gritting his teeth when she screamed. 

Mr. Stark was right, it burned so badly. In a haze she ripped of her mask for unrestricted access to the air around her and tried to calm her heartbeat. He wrapped the wound firmly and sat down beside her, suddenly exhausted. 

“I am so sorry kid. You saved my life. Thank you so much. I just-“ Persephone raised her hand to his shoulder, a smile lightening the pain tightened corners of her beautifully dark face.

“No, thank you for staying and patching me up. You tried to help me before too, with that man. Besides, I’ve been stabbed before, this is not the worst I’ve had.” Tony felt a protectiveness sure through him, “What?! And you just patched yourself up without going to an adult? Next time, remember, my tower is always open for crazy spider-kids. I don’t care if I’m in a conference with the President, if you get hurt, you have to call me and let me help you.”

Persephone smiled in a way that screamed that she would never take him up on his offer, probably out of some misguided belief that she would be fine on her own. Tony realized he would need another excuse to let him make sure she stayed safe. He shook his head and grinned upon realizing that he was planning so far ahead for a teen he didn’t know the name of.

“So, what’s your name Spiderwoman?”

“Persephone. Persephone Parker.”

“Like the Queen of the Underworld and Goddess of Spring?” Tony laughed internally. It seemed he had finally met someone else with a name like his. The Merchant of Death and the Queen of the Underworld. Crazy coincidence. 

“Yeah. Um, this is going to sound a bit strange, but could I borrow some clothes? Anything would be fine, I just don’t know if I’ll be able to go home in blood soaked jeans and a singlet without some questions being raised I wouldn’t like to answer to.”

“You are not going home. Wow, that came out wrong. I just meant that I need to keep you here for overnight supervision to make sure that wound doesn’t become infected. Do you have family you could call who knows your identity so that your family knows you’re safe?”

“No one knows except you and I’d like to keep it that way. I’ll just call my Aunt May and tell her I’m staying at a friend’s house. She has a night shift anyway.”

No wonder it had been so easy to keep her identity secret. Tony realized that she must remain unsupervised for most of the day anyway, so a spider-shaped secret would have gone unnoticed. 

“I’ll let you borrow some of my clothes. Be back soon.” 

After about thirty seconds of waiting, Seph had had enough. With her enhanced healing working at full blast, she was getting really hungry. Rolling out of bed, she was about to go searching for food in the kitchen she had spotted on her way in, but ran straight into Tony with an armful of clothes. 

“Hey, what are you doing up? You were just shot in the shoulder, you should be getting some rest, Parker.”

“I’m hungry - patrol and faster healing burns up energy quickly so I wanted to go and get some food, if that’s ok? I’ll repay you for everything, I just don’t have any money for food right now.”

“There are so many things wrong with that sentence, but first let’s do this in steps. First off, you could have just called and asked me to pick something up from the kitchen on my way. Secondly, you do not need to repay me. Which one of us is a billionaire?”

“Sorry Mr. Stark, I didn’t mean to offend you, I just didn’t want to be a freeloader.”

“Freeloader she says, honestly kid if you really want to stop being a pain, go take a shower and change. You’re getting blood all over my sheets and floors.” Seph blushed and grabbed a web shooter, covering her bullet wound with the liquid so it wouldn’t get soaked. She was so glad she had insisted they pick up her backpack on the way. They had had sport at school today, so she had an extra sports bra. Seph would have died of embarrassment if she got blood on her idol’s t-shirt all because she just couldn’t (wouldn’t) ask him for extra lingerie.

Ten minutes later found them both in the living room, eating pizzas while Persephone explained the chemistry behind her web fluid. Tony hadn’t realized how much he had missed having someone to bounce ideas off of. Once, he had thought Bruce would be that person, but he had left him like everyone else. There had always been a barrier between them that spoke of traumas that would never allow Bruce to open up enough to fully trust Tony.

“So, you mentioned earlier you’re making your web fluid in the school labs. Yet some of these reactions cause the webs to be highly corrosive before you balance the equation. And you don’t want to risk making them anywhere else because you’re seriously protective of your secret identity. I hope I don’t regret this, but I’m going to allow you some space in my labs to work on the fluid, as long as you promise not to touch anything you aren’t supposed to.”

Persephone’s eyes sparkled with barely disguised delight and she began thanking him profusely for the next couple of minutes until Tony threatened to retract his offer if she didn’t stop. Seph immediately stopped talking, making him laugh and stand up.

“Do you feel up to showing me how you make the web fluid real time?”

“Does this mean I get to see your lab right now?”

“Yeah kid. Come on. And call me Tony, you’ve definitely earnt it.” Seph would deny it, but a tiny squeal escaped her as she followed him down. The lab was everything she had imagined and more. After showing him the process, Tony had to admit he was impressed. Even without access to the materials he had, she had made something incredible. They worked well into the night and it was only when he realized it was midnight that Tony suggested she get some rest. Even spider kids needed rest after a bullet wound.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry for the wait! School is just around the corner and I've got several tests coming up so updates will probably be infrequent, though I will try to be as frequent as possible.
> 
> Also, thank you ExtraEdgyOtter for your lovely comment. It's the first one I've recieved and I'm glad that you like Persephone so far. I did deliberate that name for quite a while and it does hold some significance!
> 
> I can't believe the amount of kudos, hits and bookmarks this story as already achieved. Thank you all so much for your encouragement!
> 
> \---------
> 
> ****This chapter and the fic in general is under serious work and may not be updated soon, though this IS NOT abandoned.

Pepper Potts didn't know what to think. Tony had some crazy ideas, but they usually didn't involve adopting random teenage girls off the street. And he was definitely adopting her, no matter what either of them tried to tell her. You didn't just give a fifteen year old kid your phone number, show her your lab and give her an assigned room in your penthouse if she was just some kid off the street. 

“I’ll see you later then, Queenie. Friday’s already programmed my number onto your phone.” Both women looked at him incredulously.

“Tony- you can’t hack into minors’ phones!”

“Queenie? My name’s Persephone, Tony.”

He threw up his hands, grinning slightly. “Geez, two minutes of knowing each other and you’re already launching a coordinated frontal assault. So, Pep, does that mean that everyone over 18’s tech is free game? And yes, Queenie, y’know, Queen of The Underworld. Know your mythology, Seph, honestly!”

They both rolled their eyes simultaneously and shared a look of mutual suffering, and though they would never admit it, a slight smile on the corner of their lips.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Persephone was done. Not only was she late to school because Pepper Potts had dropped in early from some meeting she had in Japan (and how awesome was it that Pepper Potts, a legitimate icon, knew her name), but she had forgotten her Spiderwoman at Stark Tower. How was she even going to get up to the penthouse? She didn’t have any kind of pass or card that could even explain why she required access to the building in the first place, not to mention the fact that the moment they saw Persephone in all her teenage glory, they would assume she was lying. Her phone buzzed. It was from Tony.

Hey Queenie. You left your spidey suit here, so you’ll have to swing by to pick it up. I know, the pun is genius.

Seph smiled and told him she would come by as soon as possible. Honestly, she hadn’t doubted for one second that Ms Potts had acted out of character. She couldn’t fathom a universe where Pepper Potts was a judgmental person. 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

That evening, Persephone walked through the doors to Stark Tower once more. Her heart was in her throat as she approached the private elevator that Tony had told her to take. Apparently, it was the only one with access to the penthouse. Two burly men stood before it. Security. Wonderful.

Squaring her shoulders she spoke, “Hello! I have a private appointment with Mr. Stark. Could you please let me through?”

One of the men snorted. “Yeah, right. Let me guess, you’re his long-lost daughter. Wearing an ACDC shirt isn’t going to convince anyone of anything.”

“No, I just really need to see him. Listen, I had left something with him last night and I need it back. So, if you’ll just let me get past you…”

The man leered at her. “You’re a little young for him. You might struggle to understand English, so let me spell it out for you slowly and simply. Go. Back. To. Where. You. Came. From.”

Blood rushed to her ears and Persephone was a hair’s breadth from eviscerating the racist pig verbally and physically where he stood, but even as she drew her breath, the younger of the two cut in.

“I would have thought that there existed more brain cells in your puny little brain, Dylan. Perhaps it is due to your own poor lineage. Judging a person based on the colour of their skin is perhaps the most Neanderthal-like method of observation. But that is probably all that you can manage, error laden as it is.” He turned and smiled at her. Persephone grinned. She wished she could be that quick with a witty comeback but May had never really appreciated them. 

“I apologize for his behavior. Shall I accompany you up? I would still like to confirm your identity with Mr. Stark, as well as recommend that he fire certain disrespectul racist people.” Seph nodded. There was something familiar about him, in the way his face was aristocratically structured and the black hair that framed a pale face.

They rode the elevator in silence, until she grew too curious and asked.

“Have we met before? You seem really familiar, but I can’t place it. My name is Persephone Parker, by the way.”

Smirking, the man turned and applauded her.

“Well done, mortal. Though, that’s not exactly what you are either, is it? You’ll find out my name soon enough. Your name however... I wonder.”


End file.
